Pain in Patients With Dementia and Behavioural Disturbances

Summary

In nursing homes (NHs) 80% of the patients have dementia, between 60%-80% exhibit behavioural disturbances (BPSD), and more than 60% have pain. Both pain and BPSD is more common in those with severe dementia. Since older persons with dementia have less communicative skills, suffer from more pain and exhibit more agitation, pain may be a contributing factor in these patients. More than 40% of patients with BPSD are treated with neuroleptics despite described side-effects. There is an urgent need to investigate the impact of individual pain management on BPSD in patients with dementia.

It was hypothesized that

* pain increase BPSD in patients with dementia
* individual pain treatment decrease BPSD in patients with dementia

Conditions

• Dementia
• Pain
• Agitation

Interventions

DRUG

Paracetamol

Paracetamol Max. dose: 3g/d

DRUG

Morphine

Morphine ret. Tab. 5mgx2/d; max. dose:10mgx2/d

DRUG

Buprenorphine plaster

5ųg/h, change each 7.day; max. dose: 10ųg/h

DRUG

Pregabalin

25mgx1/d; max 300mg/d

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The Research Council of Norway

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Bergen

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Rolv Terje Lie, PhD · University of Bergen, Norway

• Bettina S. Husebo, MD, PhD · University of Bergen, Norway

• Dag Aarsland, MD, Phd · University of Bergen, Norway

• Clive Ballard, MD, PhD · King's College London

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2009-11-30

Primary Completion

2010-07-31

Completion

2010-10-31

Countries

• Norway

Study Locations